


Our Bond Saves Us

by screamingatstars



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo Lives, Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Healing, Spoilers, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24442162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamingatstars/pseuds/screamingatstars
Summary: When Ben gives up his life in order to save Rey’s, Rey decides she can’t just leave him behind. She won’t leave Exegol alone.A rewrite of Ben’s death scene in TROS to fix my biggest problem with the movie.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Our Bond Saves Us

After she fell to the ground and knew nothing but darkness, in the depths of the Sith planet Exegol, Rey had opened her eyes once more and seen Ben.

The smile on his face when she said his name, when she kissed him, was worth more than any part she had ever scavenged for, any secret the rebels had ever uncovered. She had seen the tears in his eyes, the joy, the peace. He was here, with her, and they were alive.

And then something in those eyes had extinguished. Ben was there, and then he was not, his empty body falling backwards to rest on the dark stone.

Now, he lay still, and she was alive because of his death. His life flowed through her, and she was alone. 

The fleet of the Final Order was falling. Countless ships and fighters still flew, arcing triumphantly across the sky. It was a victory, she knew; the galaxy was free at last. Somewhere up there was whatever remained of her newfound family. If she wanted to, she could easily join them.

But she couldn't leave this deepest dark of Exegol alone. She  _ wouldn’t.  _

They had come too far for her to give up on Ben now.

Rey closed her eyes and reached out, the small trace of power that remained inside of her amplified a thousandfold by the sheer shock and heartbreak that was crashing over her, in a wave so much more terrifying and formidable than any she had faced on the Endor moon. The pounding in her ears of her own breaking heart, the crashing and burning and chaos around her, all of the distant echoes of victory and radio chatter, it all faded away. Sound fled along with sight, and then touch with it, until all sensation had been replaced by a singular, yet all-encompassing,  _ feeling…  _

A Force.

When she again opened her eyes and looked towards the opening in the sky, the torn-apart hatch, it was not with any natural sense that she perceived it. 

She gasped at the sheer volume of it all, tiny purple speckles of pure Force energy lingering in the air all around them, a cloud of their combined dyadic life force that Palpatine had drained from them. The energy could not be destroyed, after all; and with the destruction of its former host, was simply hanging suspended in a cloud above them. Though they appeared as tangible and clear as the stars gleaming beyond the collapsing fleet, Rey knew it was not so. These beautiful sparks were only visible to her mind, and could not be seen with ordinary eyes. None of the people in their ships above would be able to see these beautiful, dangerous remnants of her and Ben’s struggle in the Force, of the immense sacrifice that had just been made. 

The energy felt sharp and dark when she reached out to it, as if the mere minutes her grandfather had possessed it had already begun to taint it.

But it was still theirs. It was still life. And that was all she needed.

The tension between each tiny node of energy was tangible to her, like an infinitesimal string she could reach out and touch, the near-infinite connections spinning the cloud into a dense spider’s web. It was effortless to reach out with her own Force power, to pull on one of the strings and let the rest be brought along with it. It hummed and crackled with life as it shuddered and moved, tiny arcs of lightning streaking through the Force. She yelped with pain when the bolts struck her skin, jolts of sharp fire racing harshly through her limbs. The energy seemed to resist drawing closer than it was, a warning to let it be, to allow it to fade away and disperse.

But she couldn’t listen to it. 

She exhaled a sharp breath and drew the cloud into herself, gasping as it rushed and flowed, filling her very soul up with vast reserves of pure Force. It felt icy cold, still hostile from its theft, freezing yet burning through her entire being. Her vision darkened, tendrils of red and blue and purple creeping into the edges of her sight. She couldn’t feel, could barely see, couldn’t move at all. There was nothing left but the power, the sheer  _ Force  _ that was consuming her.

...and a whisper of something. Nearly imperceptible, like the briefest breeze against her skin, which she suddenly realized she could feel again. Her fingers were pressed against something, something she knew was important, but she couldn’t quite remember why… 

_ Ben. _

Reality snapped back into focus, the colored edges vanishing. The chills stopped, the fire quenched. Ben. Her Ben. 

His hand was already cold, so cold in hers. His face, which only moments before had worn a smile that made her heart beat for him, was flat and empty, all the light in his eyes gone. His body was limp in her arms, as she realized she must have been, too, before he brought her back. Just as she was going to do for him.

The lingering energy left from the shock wave was more than enough to save Ben. It had revived the Emperor, who in some ways was more than dead. All she had to do was transfer it, and life would breathe into him again.

Brimming with power, Rey closed her eyes again and focused, harnessing that immense rushing Force. It easily began to leach through her hands, pouring into Ben, and she gasped at the sudden emptiness it left in its wake. Overflowing as she had been, the return to normalcy and the loss of so much Force at once was a shock.

When she had given all she could, and her hands began to shake with effort, she ripped them away. Breathing hard, exhaustion beginning to set in, she waited.

It couldn’t have been any more than a single minute that passed, but it felt like an excruciating eternity. Aching pains spiked in her fingers, but she ignored them, watching Ben’s face for any sign that she had succeeded in reviving him. For far too long, there was nothing. Nothing but cold and dark and death.

Just as she was beginning to doubt, the possibility that he was gone forever creeping into her mind like a terrible virus, his eyes met hers.

The spark that she had watched go out was back, burning brighter than ever, and now Ben was looking at her like she held the entire galaxy in her hands. 

“Rey.” Hearing her name on his lips was more invigorating, more wonderful than learning to use the Force, than flying through space, than anything else in the world. Her heart was racing as she smiled at him, every emotion she could name and even more she couldn’t coursing through her.

“I’m here, Ben.”

And she was.


End file.
